Mailbox Quotas

Quota limits for mailboxes are by default defined at a Mailbox Database level. We'll therefore collect details about the limits currently in place. Within the Exchange Management Console, navigate to Server Configuration>Mailbox and view each respective Database properties as shown below:

From the Database Properties dialog window, record the Warning, Send and Send/Receive Limits as highlighted below:

Figure 2: Viewing Database Limits

As the database limits are shown in Kilobytes, we can divide the values by 1024 (for example 1048576 KB divided by 1024 equals 1024 MB) and then record the values as shown below:

Storage Group

Mailbox Database

Issue Warning

Prohibit Send

Prohibit Send/Recieve

MailboxDatabaseSG01

MailboxDatabase01

500MB

520MB

550MB

MailboxDatabaseSG02

MailboxDatabase02

500MB

520MB

550MB

Table 1

To record any exceptions from these defaults we need to be aware of, we'll then open up the Exchange Management Shell and run the following command to display a list of users with overrides set and the values of those overrides.

We'll collect information about the configuration here to ensure that we know what Send Connectors we'll be switching across to Exchange 2013, so that any changes elsewhere (such as IP restrictions for relaying) can be actioned; and make sure we understand the Receive Connector configuration that we'll need to re-create and apply to Exchange 2013.

Examine each Send Connector, by navigating to Organization Configuration>Hub Transport and choosing the Send Connectors tab. You'll see each Send Connector listed.

Figure 4: Viewing all Send Connectors

Record details of each Send Connector, including which Exchange Servers are currently specified as Source Servers. You'll find that information by choosing Properties for each Send Connector.

Figure 5: Verification of Source Server settings

Of course, if you've only got a single server and send connector like in our example, your job is very easy. We won't need to re-create the send connectors; but we'll need to examine the configuration of where they send to and ensure they are allowed to connect. The details we've recorded are shown below:

Then, examine each Receive Connector, within Server Configuration>Hub Transport and select the first server you wish to record details for:

Figure 7: Collecting information about each Receive Connector

Open each Receive Connector, and record details both from the PowerShell output, and from each connector's Properties tab, as shown in the example table below.

Server

Receive Connector

Max Message Size (KB)

IP/Port

Accept Mail From

Authentication

Permission Groups

Anonymous Relay

E12M01

Anonymous Relay E12M01

10240

All/25

192.168.15.210-192.168.15.220

- TLS

- Externally Secured

- Anonymous users

Yes

E12M01

Client E12M01

10240

All/587

All

- TLS

- Basic (after starting TLS)

- Integrated Windows Auth

- Exchange users

No

E12M01

Default E12M01

1024

All/25

All

- TLS

- Basic (after starting TLS)

- Exchange Server Auth

- Integrated

Windows Auth

- Exchange users

- Exchange servers

- Legacy Exchange servers

No

Table 4

Public Folder Infrastructure

In previous versions of Exchange, a public folder migration could certainly be a pain, but it was a rather straightforward procedure (unless you needed to troubleshoot) as the key method was to replicate the current public folders to the new Exchange servers, then remove the original replica.

With Exchange 2013, we'll migrate our Public Folder infrastructure to Modern Public Folders. This means the approach is different, and for larger organizations has additional planning concerns due to the removal of the multi-master model, that while troublesome, allowed users in different sites to access a local copy of the Public Folder they were using.

Our small example site doesn't have such concerns, but we'll take a quick snapshot using the Exchange Management Shell to ensure we know the sizes we'll need to migrate, and in the case you have multiple Public Folder databases, list the replicas.

The example above will output a CSV file, which when opened in Excel will show a table of information similar to the one shown below:

Identity

Replicas

MailEnabled

Size MB

\Finance

E12M01\PublicFolderSG01\PublicFolderDB01

FALSE

0

\Finance\Invoices

E12M01\PublicFolderSG01\PublicFolderDB01

TRUE

20

\IT\Support

E12M01\PublicFolderSG01\PublicFolderDB01

TRUE

376

Table 5

Bear in mind though that if you don't use Public Folders, or can easily move away from them, there's no requirement to implement them with Exchange 2013. As the Outlook 2003 client is no longer supported, there is no client dependency.

Clients

We've collected data about our Exchange Server and some high level information about the mailboxes on it that we'll feed into the design, so now we'll look at what's connecting to Exchange 2007 and see if we've got any work to do.

Windows Outlook clients supported by Exchange must meet minimum requirements, and for Exchange 2013 that means they must be either:

Outlook 2013 (Build 15.0.4420.1017 or higher)

Outlook 2010 Service Pack 1 with at least the November 2012 update (Build 14.0.6126.5000 or higher)

Outlook 2007 Service Pack 3 with at least the November 2012 update (Build 12.0.6665.5000 or higher)

Remember, Exchange 2007 supports clients as old as Outlook 2002, but in general, we'd expect the majority of older clients to only be as old as Outlook 2003.

Exchange 2013 also supports Mac clients, including Outlook 2011 and Entourage Web Services addition. Apple's Mac Mail also connects, and naturally you may expect to find ActiveSync, POP3 and IMAP clients if these protocols are enabled. Outside of Exchange, we also have BES users in our environment; however we'll collect information about these separately when we examine the BES server in a later section.

Logon Statistics

We'll start on the Exchange Server and use Get-LogonStatistics to grab a snapshot of connected clients. This is a good quick method of checking the build numbers against those shown above; but as it only captures information about currently logged on clients, it's unlikely this will give you a full picture.

The output from Get-LogonStatistics will only show the current Mailbox server you are logged into by default; and will also show other clients - such as a connected Blackberry Enterprise Server. We'll use the following command to grab statistics from all Mailbox servers, exclude results that don't look like Outlook clients using the -match operator, ensure multiple results are removed and export the results to a CSV file:

However opening the UserLogins.csv file you'll be shown a table of information as shown below. You'll see in our output none of the connected clients meet the minimum requirements:

UserName

ClientVersion

Alta Armwood

14.0.6025.1000

Monty Granger

12.0.6606.1000

Rod Klutts

11.0.8200.0

Table 6

If you're relying on this approach to collect client information then you may need to collect statistics multiple times to provide an accurate picture of your user base.

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit

Another approach that complements the above, is to use the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit. The MAP toolkit can be used for many purposes, and in particular can collect and document your existing Outlook client estate.

After downloading and installing the MAP toolkit from the Microsoft Downloads website, navigate to the Desktop tab and scroll down to the Office 2013 Readiness section. We'll use this to report on the current Office versions in use along with other relevant information that will help if you wish to upgrade clients to the latest version of Office. To begin, select Collect inventory data:

Figure 10: Collecting Inventory data using MAP

The Inventory and Assessment Wizard will be displayed. Within this wizard, enter information about how you will discover client workstations, and credentials you will use to collect. In the example below, a specific Active Directory organizational unit has been selected that contains client workstations and credentials to connect as an Administrator to each workstation have also been provided:

Figure 11: Options specified for Inventory

After choosing Finish discovery will take place and you will be shown clients that could not be contacted. Computers must be switched on, connected to the network and allow the workstation or server the MAP toolkit is installed on to connect via WMI.

After the inventory completes, we'll now see more information about our readiness for Office 2013. In our example, it doesn't look good. That's OK as we're primarily looking at the versions of Office in use in this scenario. Click on the readiness information as shown below to view more details:

If Outlook Web App functionality is important to you internally, repeat the post inventory steps, choosing Internet Explorer Discovery instead:

Figure 14: Viewing collected information about IE versions

Summary

In this part of the series we've collected information about Mailbox Quotas, Send and Receive Connectors, high level information about our Pubic Folder infrastructure and began collecting information about clients. In the next part of this series we'll complete our discovery exercise.

If you would like to read the other parts in this article series please go to:

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Steve Goodman

Steve is a 5 times recipient of the MVP (Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional) award from Microsoft, is a regular international conference speaker, podcast host, regular blogger, plus he is the author of a number of popular Exchange books. Steve is Head of Messaging and UC at top Office 365 partner Content and Code, responsible for their Exchange and Skype for Business offerings. Steve has worked on a vast number of Exchange and Office 365 projects across customers large and small, often with complex requirements and loves to share his expertise.

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